It could be a long wait before the parking woes of the shoppers thronging the congested Sadar Bazar and the neighbouring market areas in the Old City might finally end.
Hit by the COVID-induced lockdown, legal tangles and tussle over land transfer, all the three multilevel parking projects of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram are running behind schedule and the fate of the largest of them, the 8,332-sq m six-storey parking lot with a multiplex and a commercial space, hangs in the balance.
Though the Letters of Award (LoA) have been given for all the three projects — near Jama Masjid off Old Railway Road, at Kaman Sarai, and behind the post office in Sadar Bazar — the construction is yet to kick off at two of the sites. As per the contract, all the three lots are to be constructed in two years’ time.
Completion time limit
The work for the 3,186 sq m parking lot near Jama Masjid began in August last with a delay of over a year due to COVID-induced lockdown, but the project is not likely to be completed within the mandatory 24 months. An official, not willing to be identified, said that only 25% of the work was completed so far and going at the present pace, the construction could not be completed within the time frame fixed in the contract.
“This year, too, a lot of time was lost due to the lockdown restrictions. Besides, carrying out construction in a congested market area throws up many challenges. The work is carried out round-the-clock and the casting job is done mostly after 10 p.m.,” said the official involved with the construction project.
Total capacity
The six-storey parking lot with three basements has a total capacity of 260 four-wheelers and 154 two-wheelers and would mostly cater to the shoppers visiting Sadar Bazar, Bhuteshwar Mandir market, Jama Masjid market, and the shops along the Basai Road and Jail Road.
Ramesh, running Bharat Handloom House, near the parking lot expressed hope that the project, once completed, would meet the parking needs in the area to a large extent.
“There is no parking space in this area, expect two small open parking lots near Sohna Chowk with a capacity of hardly two dozen of them. The motorists are forced to park their vehicles on the roadside, slowing down the traffic movement and adding to the congestion. This parking lot will be a big relief,” said Mr. Ramesh, who deals in bedsheets, wallpapers and mattress covers’ business.
The work for the second and the bigger parking lot behind the post-office — measuring 3,840 sq m — and catering mostly to those coming to the Sadar Bazar has been hit due to delay in transfer of land from the Public Works Department to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram. The LoA for the project, with a capacity of 368 four-wheelers and 144 two-wheelers, was given to M/s Nonu Ram and Sons on February 12, 2020, but the work is yet to start. The parking lot will have five storeys and three basements.
Legal problem
However, the most ambitious of the three, one at Kaman Sarai, has landed in a legal soup over the demolition of shops and some houses forming the facade of the parking lot with the capacity to hold 1,000 four-wheelers and 195 two-wheelers.
The shopkeepers, around a dozen in number, and a family of seven brothers, claiming to be staying on the land for around a century, moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court last year over the matter and the court has directed the municipal commissioner to give them a hearing. Naresh Chawla, one of the shopkeepers, said that they had held meetings with the previous and incumbent municipal commissioners, but there was no solution in sight.
“We have been running these shops since 1960s and provided the proof to the commissioner. It is about our livelihood. We are only a dozen shopkeepers. We have demanded that the municipal corporation allot us shops in the front in the upcoming parking lot-cum-commercial complex,” said Mr. Chawla.
Raj Kumar Chawariya, the eldest of the seven brothers, claimed they had won against the Haryana Urban Development Authority and the Department of Town and Country Planning trying to displace them from their houses.
Only on condition
“The corporation came into being in 2007, but we have been staying here since 1925. We also own seven shops. We are ready to vacate the land, if the government offers us houses in return,” said Mr. Chawariya, lying in a cot in his house recovering from an illness with urinary catheter attached. The local unit of the Congress also owns an office on the site.
Meanwhile, the proposed site at Kaman Sarai dug up by the municipal corporation has turned into a pond inundated with rainwater attracting pigs and strays and is a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes and vector-borne diseases in the monsoon season.